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Mercer County celebrates innovation as part of 175th anniversary

Mercer Makes roebling.JPG

The Roebling 80-Ton Rope Machine, invented in Trenton in 1893. Trenton will hold the third in a series of special programs commemorating the 175th Anniversary of its founding with a daylong symposium that explores the county's important role in technological innovation.
(Photo by CW Zink)

The words rang true a century ago, when industrial firms and manufacturing plants in the state capital produced innovations that revolutionized the construction of bridges and tall buildings, reaching well beyond the city’s borders.

“Today, we marvel at companies that are the major innovators of today, like Google and Apple,” said Clifford Zink, a historian who has written about some of the major innovations in Trenton’s manufacturing past. “A hundred years ago, most of the innovation was happening in the iron and steel industry.”

John A. Roebling’s Sons Co., for decades a manufacturing giant in the city, was among the firms at the cutting edge, he said.

“Major innovations were being developed by Trenton companies that revolutionized modern life,” he said.

Zink and several others will speak at symposium titled “Mercer Makes: Innovation and Technology in the Capital County,” on Oct. 4 at The College of New Jersey in Ewing.

The program will include presentations on various innovations made in Mercer County, including a session focused on research at Sarnoff Corp. in West Windsor and a presentation of the TCNJ Sarnoff Collection. The event is part of a yearlong commemoration of Mercer County’s 175th anniversary.

Zink said he will focus on iron and steel innovation that traces its roots back to the streets of Trenton. One invention that continues to amaze visitors is the 80-ton Roebling Rope Machine built in 1893 by Charles G. Roebling, chief engineer and president of the Roebling company.

The wire rope machine, the largest in the world at the time, allowed for the production of 6-mile-long wire ropes that were later used for a variety of purposes, including bridges and cable car lines like those in San Francisco.

“Roebling was the city’s largest employer, and it made wire and wire rope that was used in many parts of the world, including in the construction of the Brooklyn, George Washington and Golden Gate bridges,” Zink said.

The machine is still in its original position at the old site of the Trenton factory, now the Roebling Market shopping center. The Smithsonian Institute one time expressed interest in adding the device to its collection, but it was quickly determined that it was too large to move, Zink said.

Another key invention was the iron I-beam, and later the steel I-beam, first developed in the mid-1850s by the Cooper-Hewitt family of companies.

“The Trenton Iron Company rolled the first I-beams that were made for structural steel,” Zink said. “These first I-beams were used in the construction of the Cooper Union in New York. That revolutionized construction of tall buildings.”

The first I-beam allowed structural floors to be made of iron rather than timber, allowing for much taller buildings.

Zink said inventions that came out of Trenton left their mark on several industries.

“These new technologies changed the way people lived,” he said. “Trenton contributed those innovations to the nation’s development.”

The symposium will be held Oct. 4 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Education Building at TCNJ. For more information on the symposium and other related events, visit www.Mercer175.org.